May 2009 Comic Book Sales to Comics Shops

Estimated Comics Shipped to North American Comics Shops
Based on Reports from Diamond Comic Distributors

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Sales plunged in May 2009, on poorer performance of the top-selling titles. The highest ranking premiere was in 20th place, New Mutants #1 — and the month’s top-seller at Diamond, New Avengers #53, only sold around half the issues of the previous year’s top-seller. The month's Top 300 Unit Sales to retailers were the lowest for any May since 2002: unit sales were off 20% versus the previous May, with dollar sales were off 19%.

Marvel's unit and dollar shares were both nearly half again what DC's were — 45.17% to 30.34% in units, 39.05% to 26.18% in dollars.

Diamond, which began releasing a Top 50 Independents list at the end of 2008, added a Top 50 Small Publishers list this time out. The Top 50 Indies list, in practice, just wound up reiterating items in the existing Top 300, since once Marvel, DC, Image, and Dark Horse were removed, at least 50 books still remained. Only one time did the 301st place item materialize in the Top 50 Indies list. The Top 50 Small Publishers list has a few of the same items on that Top 50 Indies list, but it extends downward to capture 15 more items not in the Top 300 list, finishing with Castle Waiting Vol. 2, #15 from Fantagraphics at 334th place. These additional entries would henceforth be included in the Comichron charts.

This list includes all items on Diamond's Top 300 charts, plus any post-#300 items from its Top 50 Indy and Small Publisher charts. If you don't see a book, Diamond released no data for it.
Items marked with asterisks [*] had their reported orders reduced by 10% due to returnability.
Distributor charts are regional commodity reports, not measures of a work's total reach. Read our FAQ.
The links lead to current listings for each item on eBay. You can also find the books at your comics shop.

May 2009 Graphic Novel Sales to Comics Shops

Estimated Graphic Novels and Trade Paperbacks Shipped to North American Comics Shops Based on Reports from Diamond Comic Distributors

This list includes all items on Diamond's Top 300 charts, plus any post-#300 items from its Top 50 Indy, Manga, and Small Publisher charts. If you don't see a book, Diamond released no data for it.

The links lead to details about each title on Amazon. You can also find the books at your comics shop.

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For the first time in eight months, something besides Watchmen led the charts. It's somewhat questionable whether the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen issues belong in the trade paperback category, given their price point, but the first 1910 had no trouble placing first. As a comic book, it would have placed 41st.

The Top 300 Graphic Novels sold had a total retail price of$6.88 million

(-13% vs. same month previous year, comparing just the Top 100 vs the Top 100)(+33% vs. same month 5 years earlier, comparing just the Top 100 vs the Top 100)(+111% vs. same month 10 years earlier, comparing just the Top 25 vs. Top 25)

Category to date for year:$33.05 million(-2% vs. previous year)

COMICS AND GRAPHIC NOVEL DOLLAR SALES

The Top 300 Comics and Top 300 Graphic Novels sold had a combined total retail price of$25.56 million

(-18% vs. same month previous year, comparing just the Top 100 vs the Top 100)(+9% vs. same month 5 years earlier, comparing just the Top 100 vs the Top 100)(+16% vs. same month 10 years earlier, comparing just the Top 25 GNs vs. Top 25 GNs)

Note: This category diverges slightly from Diamond's reported measures for all comics and graphic novels. Slight differences are introduced by the presence of magazines and other factors.

Average cost of comics in the Top 300:$3.42

Average cost of comics in the Top 300, weighted by orders:$3.32

Average cost of comics in the Top 25:$3.23

Median cost of comics in the Top 300:$2.99

Most common cost of comics in the Top 300:$2.99

MARKET SHARES

Share of Overall Units

Marvel

45.17%

DC

30.34%

Dark Horse

4.31%

IDW

3.78%

Image

3.26%

Dynamic Forces

2.15%

Boom

1.10%

Viz

1.08%

Wizard

0.80%

Avatar

0.69%

Archie

0.60%

Top Shelf

0.57%

Aspen

0.54%

Tokyopop

0.32%

Zenescope

0.30%

Random House

0.27%

Eaglemoss

0.26%

Oni

0.20%

Fantagraphics

0.13%

Yen

0.13%

Other

4.00%

Share of Overall Dollars

Marvel

39.05%

DC

26.18%

Dark Horse

6.09%

Image

4.61%

IDW

4.43%

Viz

2.15%

Dynamic Forces

1.96%

Eaglemoss

1.12%

Top Shelf

1.12%

Boom

1.08%

Avatar

0.96%

Wizard

0.91%

Random House

0.84%

Tokyopop

0.76%

Fantagraphics

0.52%

Oni

0.48%

Archie

0.46%

Yen

0.42%

Zenescope

0.41%

Aspen

0.39%

Other

6.05%

Items in Top 300

Marvel

105

DC

83

IDW

20

Image

18

Dark Horse

13

Dynamic

11

Boom

10

Aspen

4

Avatar

4

Dabel

4

Devil's Due

4

Archie

3

Bongo

3

Aardvark-Vanaheim

2

Radical

2

Zenescope

2

Abstract

1

Antarctic

1

Archaia

1

Astonish

1

Bluewater

1

Broadsword

1

Kenzer

1

Moonstone

1

Oni

1

Red 5

1

Udon

1

Viz

1

Share of Units in Top 300

Marvel

49.61%

DC

32.31%

IDW

3.82%

Dark Horse

3.64%

Image

2.73%

Dynamic

2.35%

Boom

1.06%

Aspen

0.63%

Avatar

0.60%

Devil's Due

0.35%

Archie

0.32%

Zenescope

0.32%

Dabel

0.31%

Bongo

0.29%

Archaia

0.21%

Abstract

0.20%

Bluewater

0.18%

Radical

0.17%

Broadsword

0.15%

Udon

0.15%

Aardvark-Vanaheim

0.14%

Oni

0.08%

Red 5

0.08%

Kenzer

0.07%

Astonish

0.07%

Moonstone

0.06%

Viz

0.05%

Antarctic

0.05%

Share of Dollars in Top 300

Marvel

51.31%

DC

29.76%

IDW

4.59%

Dark Horse

3.37%

Image

2.60%

Dynamic

2.40%

Boom

1.18%

Avatar

0.72%

Aspen

0.55%

Zenescope

0.43%

Dabel

0.37%

Devil's Due

0.33%

Bongo

0.28%

Archie

0.24%

Archaia

0.23%

Bluewater

0.21%

Abstract

0.21%

Kenzer

0.19%

Udon

0.18%

Radical

0.15%

Broadsword

0.14%

Aardvark-Vanaheim

0.12%

Oni

0.09%

Viz

0.08%

Red 5

0.08%

Astonish

0.07%

Moonstone

0.07%

Antarctic

0.04%

Dollar Share of Top 300 Comics & Top 300 TPBs

Marvel

45.99%

DC

28.68%

Dark Horse

5.47%

Image

4.65%

IDW

4.59%

Dynamic

2.05%

Top Shelf

1.14%

Boom

0.86%

Viz

0.79%

Avatar

0.53%

Oni

0.47%

Random House

0.45%

Aspen

0.40%

Tokyopop

0.32%

Zenescope

0.31%

Bongo

0.28%

Dabel

0.27%

Archie

0.25%

Devil's Due

0.24%

Digital Manga

0.20%

Archaia

0.17%

Bluewater

0.16%

Fantagraphics

0.15%

Abstract

0.15%

Kenzer

0.14%

Udon

0.13%

Desperado

0.12%

Radical

0.11%

Broadsword

0.10%

Aardvark-Vanaheim

0.09%

Yen

0.08%

First Second

0.06%

Red 5

0.06%

Astonish

0.05%

Moonstone

0.05%

Pure Imagination

0.05%

Adhouse

0.05%

New England

0.05%

Slave Labor

0.05%

HarperCollins

0.05%

Ardden

0.05%

Bandai

0.04%

Drawn & Quarterly

0.04%

Antarctic

0.03%

Alternative

0.02%

Scholastic

0.02%

THE FINE PRINT

The monthly sales estimates at right are for items shipped by Diamond Comic Distributors, the largest comic-book distributor in North America.

Diamond does not publish sales figures; instead it publishes "indexed" sales tables, in which it keys orders for all comics it lists sales for to a single comic book (usually Batman), with one “order index point” being equal to 1% of that title’s orders.

Along with other methods, we use the actual Diamond final orders from titles to approximate what an order index point equals each month.The result is applied to the Diamond charts to produce the estimates seen at right.

The figures represent only those comics and graphic novels that Diamond shipped to North American retailers in the calendar month. While Diamond's sales represent the majority of periodicals in circulation, they are a smaller portion of the overall graphic novel market.

An item may appear in more than one month's charts due to reorders; for a better idea of a comic book's overall sales, look for its end-of-year sales in the Year Overview section, where available.

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